All Africa 19 June 2016
By Aggrey Mutambo
Anti-piracy campaigners have called for a shift in the war against the vice, even as incidents of ship seizures off the East African coast continue to drop.
A meeting of security officials from over 30 countries involved in combating piracy, under the banner of Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS), concluded that focus should now be on activities of the pirates’ associates on land.
That includes blocking illegal financial transactions that fuel the vice, sharing data on suspects and boosting the work of security agencies.
“The current threat of piracy suggests the need for an adjusted response and the intent to gradually transition the balance of effort to Somalia and the Indian Ocean states and organisations,” says a CGPCS communiqué released last week.
The dispatch was the result of a four-day meeting in Seychelles of 33 countries involved in combating piracy in the Indian Ocean.
They include Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti, Seychelles, Mauritius and Gulf countries such as Oman, United Arab Emirates. Others involved are the US, UK, China, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Italy, India, Egypt, France, Marshall Islands, Denmark and Australia.
Created in 2009 after the UN Security Council Resolution 1851 of 2008, the Group forms a platform for countries and regional organisations fighting piracy and armed robberies off the coast of Somalia.
